This is the first complete commentary for ninety years on the surviving poems of Bacchylides. Part I, covering the Victory Odes, was published in 1982. Part II, with the Dithyrambs and the fragments of Bacchylides' other books, now completes the work.
Like the first part, this volume contains an introduction, the Greek text with facing German prose translation, the commentary, and the indices to Parts I and II.
Bacchylides, a contemporary of Pindar, was one of the nine "classical" lyric poets whose songs were collected, edited and studied by the scholars of Alexandria. The commentary, in addition to providing linguistic and factual information, aims to highlight the poet's qualities of style and composition which have so far been generally underrated.
Herwig Maehler, Ph.D. in Classics and Classical Archaeology, University of Hamburg 1961 and "Habilitation" for Classics, Free University of Berlin, 1975 is Professor of Papyrology at University College London since 1981 and Fellow of the British Academy since 1986. His research interests include early Greek lyric poetry as well as Greek documentary and literary papyrology and palaeography.
Classical scholars; all those interested in classical civilization in general and ancient Greek literature in particular.